ABSOLUTExclusive: The Company We Keep Song Premiere - ATDI Cover

When The Company We Keep announced details on their upcoming 7" release for the Making Moves series, there was one track that cocked many an eyebrow - a cover of At The Drive-In's "Pattern Against User." Head to the replies to hear their unique interpretation of the classic and a short interview on why they chose the cover.

Brian Southall: Justin's weird brain made us choose to do this. Basically, I had a strange glitchy electronic song, that I sent over to Justin, just in case he ended up with some ideas for it. He found himself singing the ATDI melody over the song, and brought up the idea of just making it a cover. We never actually changed my original structure of the song, and we just fit the lyrics and melody over the top of it.

What challenges did you face when adapting the song to your style?

BS: I think our biggest challenge was trying and hoping we deciphered the lyrics correctly! The last thing you want to do while covering such an iconic band, is do something wrong. Like I said, we never changed the musical structure from my original idea. I just went back at the end and added some of the ATDI riffs to the song, but played them with synths to fit the vibe of the song.

Amy, what was your initial reaction to the idea?

Amy Brennan: Initially I was terrified. Not only was I getting a lot of questions of who I was and why I was in this band, i had to interpret and own this song that was completely out of my element, and do it in a way, I almost felt to prove myself. It was a challenge to me personally to get out of my comfort zone and just let go of any inhibitions I had. To cover a song by such an iconic band as Brian said, you want to be sure you do it with as much integrity and respect as the original. I wanted to be sure my performance was one to be respected. All in all, by the end of it I had a complete blast.

Are you playing the cover on tour?

BS: We have been playing the cover on tour, and its a really fun song to play. Loud, fast, aggressive. It's awesome.

Have you ranted about how audiences are sheep?

BS: I WISH WE HAD DONE THIS! I will now do this and not give you any credit for reminding me to do so! I do think it would be pretty ridiculous for our band who no one has heard of, to start yelling at our "fans." So this is definitely on the books for our summer touring.

The 7” releases on April 24th via Mad Dragon Records/The Boombox Generation. What’s next for TCWK?

BS: We are trying to do a short midwest/east coast tour this summer, and we are just continuing to write and demo music, waiting patiently for the entire world to finally accept that we are here, and they MUST enjoy us.